Before participating in the UChicago Youth Internship Program, if Jayden Lewis didn’t know the correct response to a question for sure, he just wouldn’t answer. But throughout Lewis’ internship this summer, Briana Harrison—a genitourinary and chest research manager at UChicago Medicine and Lewis’ internship mentor—pushed the rising South Shore College Prep senior to take a guess, even when he struggled with uncertainty.
“She told me that even if you don’t think you know the answer, it’s okay to still answer because if you don’t try, you’re never going to know where you need to improve,” Lewis said.
“One of my favorite things to tell Jayden was don’t be afraid to be wrong,” Harrison said. “Our research coordinators are wrong all the time, I’m wrong all the time, but you don’t know and you’re figuring it out.”
Lewis took the lesson to heart and by the end of his six weeks in the program, he was notably more relaxed and eager to join the discussion. “I feel a lot more confident,” Lewis said.
This summer was Lewis’ second in the Youth Internship Program (YIP), a paid two-year summer employment opportunity for local Chicago public high school students that offers participating students college and career readiness support as well as hands-on experience in health sciences, computer sciences, or IT services within one of several University units. Lewis was one of six second-summer YIP participants placed in a Cancer Clinical Trials research or regulatory role in partnership with the Comprehensive Cancer Center at UChicago Medicine this summer. Following a Year 1 experience designed to introduce the students to the world of cancer and clinical trials last summer and thanks to funding support from the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Chicago, the research group worked with mentors like Harrison on hands-on assignments such as creating research kits for patients; shadowing clinical research coordinators; organizing data; and completing other projects that explored different types of cancer, treatments, and related clinical trials. On the regulatory team, interns focused on analyzing consent forms, summarizing important articles and documents, and reviewing data, among other work. Elsewhere across campus, YIP interns supported computer science and IT teams, among other units.
For Lewis, the experience broadened his understanding of the many roles often operating behind the scenes across the healthcare industry. Lewis chose YIP’s health sciences track last summer as he works toward his dream of studying to be a child psychologist and says the projects his team took on this summer illuminated the importance of clinical trials, research, and potential medical careers beyond doctor and nurse.
Seeing the interns, many of whom come from low-income backgrounds or are soon-to-be-first-generation college students, grow in their knowledge and confidence and encounter those kinds of unexpected career possibilities is a highlight each summer, Harrison says.
“I just love the opportunity to help youth grow into this field—I did not know about this field when I was younger. I did not have any opportunity to shadow or to make money interning in something I was interested in so I love that this is available to students who may not have had that opportunity before,” Harrison says. “It was really a proud moment for me to see them at the end of the program talking about wanting to get into research or strengthening their drive or just wanting to be in the medical field.”
Lewis says his family members, too, have been grateful that he’s getting an opportunity to delve into promising career pathways, and more broadly being prepared for college and career in ways they never were. In addition to his hands-on Year 2 internship, Lewis has been able to take part in a wide array of college and career readiness programming throughout his time in YIP including resume building and college essay writing workshops, annual college and career fairs, and networking events.
“I learned that your first impression on people is very important because you don’t know if you’re going to meet them later in life and need help to get jobs or internships—it’s good to build a good network of different people,” he says. “And just how to communicate effectively, how to do your work on time, having a positive attitude, and being open minded because you never know what’s going to happen and what experiences you might have.”
To cap off his summer, Lewis recently returned from one of the free, annual college tour trips UChicago’s Office of Civic Engagement hosts for local high school students participating in its other college and career readiness programs. The group visited universities and colleges across North Carolina, including Duke, Wake Forest, and North Carolina A & T, all of which Lewis plans to apply to. In the meantime, Lewis says he’ll definitely be keeping in touch with his YIP mentor and team in the years to come: “They have a special place in my heart.”